A/HRC/29/31 their policies. The Social Forum was set up in 2002 and recent sessions have focused on the rights of older persons (2014) and on the rights of access to medicines in the context of the right to health (2015). V. An agenda for the future for tackling inequality 47. A number of steps must be taken if the international human rights regime is to be able to respond meaningfully to the threat posed by extreme inequality. Some of these proposals are already well known, while others will require a willingness to step back and acknowledge that the existing system has some deep biases that need to be corrected over time. A. Rejecting extreme inequality 48. It must be accepted that extreme inequality and respect for the equal rights of all persons are incompatible. Formal recognition of the fact that there are limits of some sort to the degrees of inequality that can be reconciled with notions of equality, dignity and commitments to human rights for everyone would be an important step forward. B. Committing to reduce extreme inequality 49. Having taken the principled position that there must be limits to inequality, States should then formally commit themselves to policies explicitly designed to reduce, if not eliminate, extreme inequality. Political recognition of the challenge and the holding of a meaningful and sustained public debate on the most appropriate measures to be taken is the starting point for genuine efforts to reduce extreme inequality. C. Making economic, social and cultural rights central 50. A serious commitment to tackle extreme inequality is only possible in the context of policies and programmes that take the concept of economic, social and cultural rights seriously and give them prominence and priority equal to that of civil and political rights. For all of the achievements that have been accomplished in this domain over the past two decades, the fact remains that economic, social and cultural rights continue to enjoy only second-rank status. There are many contexts in which they are absent, marginalized or only half-heartedly taken on board. In circumstances in which economic, social and cultural rights are not a fundamental part of the overall approach, there are no obvious limits to inequality. Mr. Sen is correct in noting that “the exclusion of all economic and social rights from the inner sanctum of human rights, keeping the space reserved only for liberty and other first-generation rights, attempts to draw a line in the sand that is hard to sustain”.61 D. Ensuring social protection floors 51. It is difficult to accept that a State that has no basic social protection floor in place, whether so called or not, is meeting its most basic obligations in relation to the economic, social and cultural rights of its citizens and others. Social protection schemes can have a dramatic impact on reducing inequalities. In Brazil, for example, two programmes, the 61 16 See Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (Harvard University Press, 2011) p. 385.